This research looks at a cross-section of literary studies and social science when comparing the literature of the South and how it represents the Southern identity as it has evolved through time. This research uses studies and analysis put forth by some of the leading Southern scholars and focuses primarily on the South’s history and evolving Southern identity during three distinct time periods: the 1850s-1900s, the 1900s-1950s, and the 1950s to the present. Representative novels having plots that take place during those time periods were also chosen to use as evidence that fictional novels largely reflect the social science behind Southern identity; those novels are Cold Mountain, All the King’s Men, and Go Set a Watchman. Although there are many types of Southern identities, as the population grows larger and more diverse, this research focuses on the white male Southern identity and its reflection in the aforementioned texts. This work is significant because it illustrates that, at least in the case of Southern identity and Southern literature, the fictional texts are reflective of the Southern identity at the time they represent.

As the crisis in eastern Ukraine continues to expand, there has been much discussion about how to address both the influence of outside political actors like Russia as well as the actors within the borders of Ukraine itself. From the continued fighting in the Donbass region to the annexation of Crimea several years ago, Ukraine has found itself embroiled in a bitter conflict, driven in large part by the ethnic ties of its citizens in the eastern region of the country. The conflict between ethnic ties and national identity in Ukraine is hardly new. In the past century alone, control of Ukraine has been chaotic and divisive. The city of Lviv in western Ukraine, for example, changed hands several times in the past hundred years, creating a unique development of identity in the city and subsequent clashes. To fully understand the current conflict that continues to unfurl itself in the eastern portion of Ukraine, one must realize the significance of the historical struggle between ethnicities and nationalities at the hands of those entities that have controlled or influenced Ukraine during the past century. By using Lviv as an example, it becomes obvious that the relative uncertainty with which ethnic groups operated and the ranging attempts by those in power to destroy various ethnic and national identities helped to create a suspended and unsure state for many ethnic groups even today, a tension that has boiled over to create the full-blown crisis that Ukraine still faces.

This project centers around the immigrant experience in education. Initially, my question focused on students’ immigration status and whether or not it affected their academic achievement. I wanted to place the Hispanic immigrant mother at the center of this question because previous studies about the experience of undocumented youth centered the students. Using qualitative interviews with twelve Hispanic immigrant mothers, six in Rock Hill School District and six in Greenville county, I asked them about their involvement with their children’s education and their opinions on how documentation status affects the educational experiences of their children. My hypothesis was that this demographic of mothers would be involved in a limited way in their children’s education and that immigration status would negatively affect the educational achievement of undocumented students who are discouraged by the legal barriers to higher education. My findings show that documentation status does not necessarily discourage undocumented students from academic achievement, and that the limited participation of their mothers stems from systemic barriers in place before their existence, similar to the fourth face of power which examines the power or lack thereof stemming from the creation of the subjects.

The purpose of this research is to discuss the relationship of cognitive, linguistic, perceptual, and social-emotional milestones with their collective facilitation of second language learning (L2L) for various age ranges. While it is generally agreed that learning two languages from birth is the most efficient way to attain equal competency in both languages, most children are not raised bilingually. Therefore, this research describes the capability of young children to recognize and produce the preferred speech accent for languages that are not native to them. By contrast, post-pubescent teenagers and adults usually have a more difficult time hearing and repeating various non-native speech sounds. Their main advantage is their complete, or mostly complete, cognitive development, which helps them to process and learn the language’s syntax more quickly, at least for initial learning. From the conclusions drawn about the milestones’ facilitation of L2L, benefits and drawbacks of L2L during each age group are explained, and optimal teaching methods for each age are proposed. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of an immersion environment are discussed for L2L, as compared to the traditional learning environment. The overall conclusion for L2L is that, while each age group has different strengths and weaknesses, as does each child, students of any age can learn a second language.

South Carolina public high schools are not required to teach World Literature, and therefore, many of them do not teach anything other than canonized literature. While many public high schools in South Carolina provide an in-depth literary education according to the literary canon, or provide a small sampling of diverse literature from around the world, most public high schools in South Carolina do not provide as diverse or representative of a literary education as is necessary in today’s world. In 2018, students are expected to be culturally aware, accepting, and understanding of diverse cultures and ways of thinking, but they are not always prepared or educated enough to engage in discussion or to create their own thoughts and opinions on diversity in the world. Many students are also unable to find enjoyment or engagement in literature because they are not aware of pieces of literature with which they can identify. This problem is occurring because teachers are teaching the pieces that they were taught in high school and that they have always taught; they are afraid of the backlash they will receive if they were to change, and they are focused on teaching to prepare students for tests, but not really focused on teaching our students to be informed of the world. In order to fix this problem, South Carolina public schools should provide a well-rounded literary education that provides background and representation of diverse cultures by including and teaching lots of different literary pieces in the English classroom.